Browsers and weather forcase widget can't open some websites

[Kudroid]

My problem started few weeks ago when I could not view the weather forecast on the Weather forecast Widget if I used Environment Canada (envcan) in the location for the city of Montreal-Canada. The widget was working again when I switched from envcan to bbcukmet or wetter.com.
Recently, the problem became even worst, when I tried to open Environment Canada website (http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/..._metric_e.html), neither firefox nor rekonq would open the website. I have the same problem with my internet provider (www.bell.ca). Both browsers could not open this website too.
I looked in the internet, and there were people suggesting the difference between the bios clock time and operating system time as the reason. Others were
recommending setting the router as source of the problem.
I really think it is a Kubuntu thing because when I switch to Ubuntu on my computer or Android on my smartphone. this problem disappears and firefox & Opera can open smoothly both websites.

Just one final information, I run Kubuntu from the USB. It is fully installed on the USB and not a live CD image.

I would really appreciate any suggestion to solve this problem.

[Dutchman]

Two things come to mind, one: a possible firewall problem. If you're using the default Kubuntu firewall (ufw) you can suspend it with 'sudo ufw disable' in a terminal and then try to connect again to the websites. If it works, type 'sudo ufw reset && sudo ufw enable' to reset the firewall to default and start it again. Then check to make sure the websites are still working.

The second thing that comes to my mind is a possible DNS trouble, either at your ISP or in your network settings. If you go to "System Settings > Network Settings > Network Connections" and look at the one for your type of connection (wired or wireless tab), then click on the one that shows "Connected" and click on "Edit...". Your "IPv4" tab, "Basic settings" should be "Automatic (DHCP)" unless you have some special settings, and the "Additional DNS Servers:" should be blank. If they're not (and you didn't configure them to be otherwise) then set them that way and try to connect to the sites. Being you can connect trouble-free to other sites I don't think this is a problem, but it may be. If everything looks okay, then it very well could be a DNS problem with your ISP. In that same network dialog, change the "Automatic (DHCP)" setting to "Automatic (DHCP) addresses only" and add these to the "Additional DNS Servers:"

8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4

Those are Google's public DNS servers. Click "OK" and close all the dialogs, then try to connect to the sites again. If it works, the problem is with your ISP's nameservers.

[Kudroid]

I tried both solutions: inactivating firewall and changing the DNS server from Automatic to "Automatic (DHCP) addresses only", however, the problem still exists.

I tried to do some troubleshooting and I got the following: I tried to browse Environment Canada and bell.ca websites using Kubuntu liveCD "with the default rekonq" and failed . Then I installed firefox and tried again on the liveCD but also failed. I decided to install Kubuntu on a usb key (not create liveCD) and tried both rekonq and firefox from the freshly installed Kubuntu, again the connection failed. I finally decided to try Netrunner liveCD (a Kubuntu-based linux distribution) and surprisingly connected to both websites without any problem. I went back and ran Kubuntu from USB key and it connected for few few hours and got disconnected again.

[Dutchman]

The only other thing I can think of (networking is not my area) is a possible IVp6 conflict. I know if IVp6 was enabled some time back, it played havoc with some domain servers, I don't know if this is still the case. You can check in the Network Settings to see if it's on, and if it is you can try disabling it. It's off by default in all the Kubuntu versions I've used, and I believe this is the norm, but maybe yours somehow came on, or the default's been very recently changed.

I've tried the links you provided several times and haven't had any problems with them. I don't know why Netrunner would work and Kubuntu wouldn't either. I would think they use the same networking setup, but I've never used Netrunner so I honestly can't say. Seeing Netrunner does work, you may also want to see how it's network settings are configured and see if there's any difference in the Kubuntu setup. Other than that, I'm out of ideas. I just don't know enough about networking to go further than that.

[Kudroid]

Thanks Dutchman for the help and tips. I checked both IVp6 and was unchecked. I also compared the network settings between Netrunner and Kubuntu and they were similar.

Good news: I managed to solve the problem (but created another problem)
I noticed that Netrunner uses the Bios clock time and not USA/Canada main time like Kubuntu does. I remember reading in one of the blogs about difference in time between the OS and bios clocks would cause such problem. Since I bought my laptop from England before moving to Canada there was 5 hours difference between England and Canada main time.
I changed Kubuntu digital clock to the bios one, and the restarted my computer ...... and everything worked again.

Now I have another problem that is: my computer is showing 6 pm during lunch time (I mean showing England time not Canada time).

has Anyone have suggestions to solve this mess?

[SteveRiley]

Windows sets the hardware clock and the operating system to be in the same timezone.

Linux prefers for the hardware clock to be in GMT UTC and then uses your current timezone to calculate the local time. When you boot your PC into the BIOS/UEFI firmware, what time do you see? It should be whatever the current GMT UTC is. If not, change it.

[Snowhog]

Is GMT and UTC (what hwclock utilizes if not set with --localtime) the same?

[SteveRiley]

Is GMT and UTC (what hwclock utilizes if not set with --localtime) the same?

Yeah. I keep forgetting that "Greenwich Mean Time" is the old-fashioned name for "Coordinated Universal Time." Wikipedia will tell more than you ever wanted to know about the differences and the compromises. Or maybe I'm just an old fart.

[Dutchman]

What's the world coming to when even an accepted acronym is no longer safe?

[Kudroid]

Windows sets the hardware clock and the operating system to be in the same timezone.

Linux prefers for the hardware clock to be in GMT UTC and then uses your current timezone to calculate the local time. When you boot your PC into the BIOS/UEFI firmware, what time do you see? It should be whatever the current GMT UTC is. If not, change it.

I see the UTC time. I tried to set it up to local using this post http://askubuntu.com/questions/16937...off-by-4-hours, but by doing this I could not open the links anymore.

I had a quick comparison between netrunner and kubuntu clock and network settings, I really could not find any difference. I assume it is because Netrunner is a Kubuntu-based distro.

I also noticed that every time I installed Kubuntu 12.04 on my USB, the websites were possible to open and browse. when I installed the updates using update manager, I could not open them anymore. it seems that something goes wrong during updates.

Finally I decided to give Kubuntu 12.10 a try and it is working like charm "until now" even after updating. I really prefer Kubuntu-LTSs but for now I am going to stick to 12.10.

I would like to thank you guys for your help, it was really helpful.